My 1st Angel Baby

My 2nd Angel Baby

My 3rd Angel Baby

My 4th Angel Baby

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

FINALLY, a project I can share with you all! I get to unload a secret first this morning, now I get to show you something I was working on!

I had purchased the 3D Mailbox digital cartridge as soon as it came out on the Cricut site. I knew I would use it, just couldn't seem to find the time. So guess what...I found TIME!!! Woo Hoo! I even found the time to video tape myself making it! Starting from cutting it in the craft room to putting it together! I had to make the video in 3 separate videos cause we ALL know I cant figure out how to make my You Tube Videos go longer than 15 minutes! And, on top of that, I cant pause my video when I am shooting it. Kinda weird I think.

***Just so you ALL know, I get a little down on myself in the 3rd video. I was a little upset with how it turned out, but I think its just cause I am my own roughest critic. It did turn out pretty good, don't mind me!

I first created the mailbox on my Gypsy because I am still VERY SLOW on the Cricut Craft Room. I guess if I keep falling back to "Oh, I'll just do it on the Gypsy and upload it to the Craft Room" I'll ALWAYS be slow on it! I need to be more diligent with trying!

I made the box be 8 inches long with all of the parts cut at the relative size. I want to attempt putting the cut file on here again, but last time my luck was not so good! Anyone have an idea of how I can share my cut file so you can make this too? Just let me know! I did make a small mistake, that HOPEFULLY I fixed in the cut file. So, if we can figure out how to share it, we should be good.

So, You Tube is being goofy again and not letting me put my video's on here, so here is a link tothe 1st part:

Cutting out the parts on my Cricut Mini

Adhereing the box:

What the box looks like all together:

Sorry for the 3 videos!!!

OK all, gotta run...more things to CREATE!!! Hope to find you all Craftin' and Stampin'!

Sooooo, one of the other secrets that I could not tell you all about was that I made another design team!!! Whoo Whoo!!! Its called Made Especially For You. Its a great little blog and they have tons of challenges and cool prizes that they give away every week! The challenges run from Monday to Sunday, so you have a week to enter a submission! This week, they are doing their FIRST EVER Sketch Challenge! Pop on over to the blog and enter your idea of the sketch! You could be the big winner!!!

I already have my first challenge all ready to go for your viewing pleasure and I CANNOT wait to share it with you all!

Please make sure you stop over to Made Especially For You and give them some love!!!

OK guys, that's all for today! Hope you liked my BIG NEWS!! Still a few more things I have up my sleeve....just cant share them YET!

Monday, January 30, 2012

I just wanted to stop in and say HI! I am a little busy with some things going on at home, but I wanted to show you all a QUICK haul video! These things are from Ebay, Momenta, Penwa, Michael's, and Proud Parents.

I hope you guys can see the video! You Tube is giving me issues again!

OHHHHHH! And I almost forgot...I am apologizing in advance...I say "UMMMM" about 150 times in this video. Video's are still VERY new to me, and I have to get used to not saying "ummmm" when I am at a loss for words! I will get there!!!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Hey All!!!
I am the WORST at keeping a surprise..I mean it, I really am...I have to avoid people for extended periods of time just so I don't tell them whatever surprise they have coming to them! Like for instance, my cute little prego sister in law came over last night, and it took my other sister in law to tell me DO NOT SHOW HER THE SHOWER INVITE OR DECORATIONS and darn near send me out of the room, because she knew I would have! I just cant wait to see the look on her face when she sees all the great stuff I have created for her!

AND in addition to the baby shower surprise, I made about 10 cards that I submitted to Cricut Magazine and Paper Crafts Magazine for submissions, and I CANNOT SHOW THEM!! AHHHHHHH! Its SO hard to not show off what you are SO excited to show! Especially since it looks as though I haven't created anything in about a week...NOT THE CASE!!!

So, with that being said, HOW DO YOU KEEP A SURPRISE??? I am very curious! What can I do to hide my excitement and just RELAX? What do you all do to make the time go quicker??? Leave me a comment telling me what you do! I could use all the help I can get!!!!

That is what I will leave you with while I go to work today! After work, it is MORE CREATING!!!!

OH and I almost forgot!!! I need to show some love to my BFF Kellie Ettore!! Congrats on your engagement "little sis"! I cant wait to make fun stuff for you next!! Love you and Scott both!!!

I am so honored to accept the Liebster
Blog Award from a new friend of mine, Ashley from Made Especially For You. Ashley and I have recently become friends, and I can tell we will be staying friends for a lifetime, no matter how far away we are from each other!

Thanks Ashley! You made my day :)

"The origins of the Liebster Blog award
are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany,
Liebster meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer
than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on
to five more blogs of note."

Here are the rules:

1- Choose FIVE up and coming blogs to award the Liebster
to. Blogs must have less than 200 followers.

2- Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award
by linking back to them.

3-Post the award on your blog.
List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites

I am passing this award on to
the following five wonderful ladies and their blogs:

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I am FINALLY feeling better today! YEEEAAAA! My boss asked me to stay home today so I can get better because she is most likely going to become GiGi this weekend and it looks as though I will have to work! I am so excited for her! First grandson coming along! And she loves the name GiGi (that's what my son calls my mom) and cant wait to be called it! So, I am home today...was kinda bored...then decided it was time to do some crafting :)

I had seen this blog a little while back and said that I was going to try to do a challenge on their site. Well, needless to say, 6 months later I am finally trying, lol!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Remember how excited I was yesterday that I had a WHOLE day to craft it up? Well, my day was cut a little short because I wasn't feeling so hot...turns out I have Strep Throat! Can I tell you it feels like I am swallowing razor blades right about now??? I cant wait for this medicine to take effect! I feel a little bad cutting you guys short today, but I am just not feeling so hot, and I wanna get in my comfy bed! I will make it up to you all this week, I PROMISE!!

I will leave you with this...While I only had a few hours in my craft room yesterday, I managed to get 20 invites done for my sister in law, 2 table decorations, and 3 cards done that are submitted to Cricut Idea Book and Paper Crafts Magazine! Go me!!! Does anyone know how long it takes to hear back from the magazines if they happen to pick your card????

Oh, and on a cartridge note...I got Good Old Days in the mail today for my Imagine! That cartridge looks AMAZING!! Did you all happen to see the 8 new cartridges that Provo Craft released? HOLY COW, I'm gonna go broke!!! There are 6 out of the 8 that I WILL OWN in the near future! Hee Hee!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Happy Sunday! Its my CRAFTING DAY!!!! I was so excited to have a WHOLE day lined up with projects that I wanna make, that I just couldn't sleep! So, I have been bouncing around from blog to blog to say hello, and now its time to check in with you guys before I go up into my little craft room and CREATE!!!

We have TONS of things going on with the business today...We have our big benefit for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia going on 3/10/2012, so we are EAGERLY looking for donations for the Chinese Auction items. If ANY of you can donate ANYTHING to help us out, that would be great! Its going for a fantastic cause. My brother in law is a childhood Leukemia Survivor (23 years cancer free!) and we thought what better way to give back then to host a benefit??? He will be one of our speakers, and we are also looking for another speaker. My partners will be over later today so we can discuss all of this, so I have to get my ideas ready! I want to raise as much money as possible!!!

In addition to the benefit, we are hosting a craft show at my sons school! We are just waiting for the last word from the PTA at his school that all is set to go! So, the crafty day I am going to have is going to be dedicated to the craft show!!! I am really looking forward to this. We are going to get our name out there AND we are donating a portion of our proceeds to my sons school!! LOVE IT!!!

AND finally, we have the number of invites we have to make for my sister in laws baby shower! We worked on them for 8 hours STRAIGHT last Sunday, so now its time to piece the little animals onto the cards! I cant wait to see just how cute its gonna look all together!!!

So, I am going to leave you with a card I made...I got the idea from How'd She Do That (Dawn) on You Tube. Its called a view master card! It was SO SIMPLE to make it! I thought it was going to be hard, but it really wasn't! I even changed the directions that she had for people who don't have punches, but have George and Basic Shapes and can make circles! You would only need 1 punch for this card to work, and I will be posting the instructions tomorrow! I may even make a video for it!

Please stop by each of their blogs and check out just how talented they all are! I am SO excited to be working with such an awesome bunch of girls! I know I am going to learn so much!!! Also, please start following CCR!!! It is a TOTALLY fantastic blog that is chock full of Cricut goodness!!! Please follow and start taking part in the challenges! They run every 2 weeks so it gives you PLENTY of time to join in!!!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Well, back to work for me after a 3 day long weekend (Mon, Tues, Wed)! Its good cause I miss my work girls! As a matter of fact, its Lori's birthday today and I made a card for her. I attempted to try the video again last night, and just got even more mad. My computer would continue to freeze on me! SO ANNOYING!!!

Anyway, I hope you like the new look to my blog! I finally figured out how to add different pages! So, I promised MONTHS ago that I would put up all my cartridges and guess what...I FINALLY did! I also put up some other pages!!!

OK all, I gotta run...gonna be late!! Hope to find you all Craftin' and Stampin'!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

So I have some AWESOME news!!! Babci's surgery went AWESOME yesterday! She is doing great! They checked her lymph nodes and the initial results from Pathology is that the node is negative for any spread of cancer. Of coarse this will have to go to a different lab and have other tests done, but as of right now, she is cancer free!!! She was up and moving around last night at the hospital, and as of this morning, her only complaint was that my Dzidzi (Grandfather-Polish) snored to loud last night so she didn't get much sleep! What an awesome woman she is! She is a true fighter! I am SO proud of her!!!!

When I got home last night, I had to packages waiting for me that I have been waiting what seems like FOREVER for!!! I made a video to show you some cool new things that I cant wait to play with!!

Thankfully my You Tube wanted to work right today! Yea!!!

So, I also made another video and I am REALLY trying to figure out how to edit it! I was in the middle of editing and I only had 3 more minutes to cut out so it would work on You Tube and my computer shut down on me! It was 2 hours TOTALLY WASTED!!! Oh well, cant get upset about it! I have other things to utilize my energy on! LOL!

I will have some exciting news to give you all this weekend! Wait for the big announcement!!!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

I am away today for my Babci's surgery, but I did not want to leave you all without showing off the card that I made for her, I also made you guys a video with all the directions for it!

For some strange reason my You Tube link wont work, so just click hereto get to my video PART 1 and here for my video PART 2 of making the Breast Cancer Card and what I used. All measurements and items are mentioned in the video!

Monday, January 16, 2012

I got a little surprise on my door step today! A package from Stampin' Up! I thought because it was a holiday that nothing would be delivered, but I was wrong! Great surprise for me!

So I ordered the Color Caddy for my stamps FINALLY because I needed it! It was a little pricey, but I think well worth it! My ink pads look awesome in it! I also got some fun new toys that I will be showing how to work over the next few nights!

I also show you an UBER QUICK tour of my veeeeeeerrrrrrryyyyy small craft room! I try to do the best with the space that I have! It works for me!!!

Tomorrow is Babci's surgery! I am getting so worried for her and for the surgery...My mind has been on that all day today. Even while my son had his little friend over for his play date. I just cant stop thinking about it, nor can I stop praying that when they open her nodes up, there is no sign of spread cancer. PRAYERS PLEASE!! I made a card for her that I think looks really cute! I just want it to brighten her day, if only for a few minutes! I will have the video for that on tomorrows post.

But as for today, here's a quick video to see! PS...it is up on my You Tube Channel-Craftinandstampin

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Just wanted to check in and tell everyone that I hope they are having a crafty day, because I sure am!! Gotta update the Gypsy and go off to my partners house to create some baby shower invites for our sister in laws baby shower! We have the "prototype" in mind, just gotta tweak it a bit!

As soon as I get home later, I will post a picture of what we came up with!

Quick chance to post tonight...had to work, and then had to work on my sister in law's baby shower card since she finally picked a theme! YEA!!!

But, I wanted you all the check out a card I made back in December that MADE IT TO THE CRICUT CHIRP, AND I MISSED IT!!!! How the heck did I do that??? I bet I looked at it and thought my phone was goofing! Oh well! Glad to celebrate now, instead of never!! The best part of the mention is that it was on my 9th wedding anniversary!!! God, that would of made my night!!! Here is alink to the post and here is what my card looked like:

The card is mentioned in the MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS section, and its called Merry Christmas Card.

What a high! Now time to try to catch some ZZZZ's before getting up for work tomorrow!!!

-Cut 2 3.5' light pink and 2 3.5' dark pink strips from the Ribbons and Rosettes Cartridge
-Cut LOVE from Sweethearts at 3'
-Cut hearts in your colors from Art Philosophy at 1' and 1.5' (use coordinating stamp set for exact measure for your hearts so they stamp correctly)
-Insert background paper into frame
-Punch 2 2' circles with pink
-assemble your heart that you cut from Ribbons and Rosettes with score tape and using CAUTION with your glue gun, apply the two 2' circles to front and back of your Rosette so it stays together
-Stamp your hearts and assemble them as you wish and get them ready for adhering to frame
-Punch out your center heart with your heart punch (if you do not have a heart punch, cut an additional 1' FAT heart from Art Philosophy)
-Apply a nice layer of glue to adhere your glitter to the heart (I used my XYRON sticker maker for this part...I LOVE THAT LITTLE THING ;) )
-Apply Glossy Accents over the glitter and set it aside to dry (will probably take over night!!)
-Using Glue Gun and CAUTION, apply the glue to the back of the Rosette and QUICKLY and CAREFULLY attach to the glass on the picture frame
-Using Pop Dots, place on the back of LOVE cutout and adhere that to the glass of the frame
-Using Pop Dots, place on the back of your hearts and adhere to the BOTTOM SIDES of the picture frame
-Once your center heart is dry, use Pop Dots and adhere to your center of your frame

Thursday, January 12, 2012

All my un-decorating is just about done! A few more things to put away and a few more things left to replace! God, its the worst to un-decorate for me. January is my least favorite month of the year and December is my FAVORITE! So, to take all of my favorite items down in my LEAST favorite month just makes it so much harder for me! But, I'm getting though it! One more night of this and I am DONE!!!

So, two of my resolutions for the year were:

1. Be more organized in my crafting area (get better storage solutions, clean up from one project to the next, keep better track of my ideas, etc).
2. Create a card sketch a day, and create something EVERYDAY this year.

with that being said, I decided to clean and organize my craft room! I cleaned it all out on Sunday, purchased better storage "solutions" for my craft items, and cleaned up all my previous project messes! But, when I was cleaning up, I took my stack of card sketches and I must have thrown them out. It would not have been so bad if trash day wasn't Monday :(. So, that lead to my issue of keeping better track of my sketches, and also made me remember that I was supposed to be doing a sketch a day.

The only think I could think of to keep track of my sketches, and also to have it handy on the go, was a composition book. I have an I Phone and thought maybe there might be a drawing app, but I couldn't find anything! So, my question to all of you is this: How do you keep track of all your card sketches, layouts, and ideas for future projects???? Please comment below and help me out!

I am FINALLY finished creating my items for the Pink By Design DT call!!! I have been very eager to try out for this DT call!!! I really hope Sarah and the DT likes the items I created and that they think I could be an asset to their team!!

So...here's the video!

Now, after making that video, I decided on:

Shaker Card

Valentines Day Shaker Card. I recycled the hearts from another project that I made! Recycle!!!

My first card I made with Pink By Design Stamps! This stamp set is the first set I purchased!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Sorry I have not posted in the last two days....I have had an AWFUL week....On Tuesday we found out that my Babci (polish for Grandmother) has breast cancer and has to have a mastectomy. Thankfully she found a wonderful oncologist who is going to do the surgery on the 17th of January. They will also be checking her lymph nodes to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else. They said as of right now, it appears to be "Phase 1"...? I am a little unsure of what that means, cause when it comes to cancer, I have not heard of Phases, only Stages. I just pray that the surgery is quick and that the cancer has not spread.

Then, my sister in law gets rushed to the emergency room in the middle of the night on Wednesday because of Kidney Stones. It took her until Saturday to finally pass it. They said it was size able, but not big enough to remove. Instead, she had to just pass it.

To top off my week of two awful things, my business partner tells me that she is going to be leaving our day job (we work a day job together and have a business on the side) and going to another job! She has been out on maternity leave for 3 weeks now. I thought maternity leave would be awful without her, but now knowing she isn't coming back, well, I would take maternity leave for 6 months over this!

I have had all I could handle for a week...ready for a new week to start for me, and ready for some good things to happen in 2012!

To take my mind off all this, I decided to clean and re-organize my craft room. New year, new ideas, new setup to my room! I had a chance to have some crafty time with my other partner, Colleen, and we got some really cute Easter Cards done! I also made sure to take some time out for just me, and I created a few projects that I will be entering into 2 design teams. I will be posting them for Tuesday and Wednesday. I want to make sure I am staying on top of crafting time this year, because for me, it is very peaceful and relaxing. Of coarse my first way to relax is to have family time, but just having a few hours a week to myself to craft is just the best! I look forward to the days where I can turn the world off and just craft!!!

Ok guys, please keep my Babci in your prayers! I will fill you in once she has her surgery and I will also post a little something this week about a giveaway. It will involve making a Cancer Sucks type of card that I am asking my blog followers to create and send to me so I can pass on to her when she gets home from the hospital! I think it will brighten her day for sure! I will give you a heads up on the giveaway...I will be giving away a Stampin' Up punch and another little goodie! Not sure what the other goodie will be as of yet, but I know it will be good! But, if you would like to get started on the card, and send it to me, here is my address! Once I receive your card, I will number is from 1-whatever amount I get. After that, I will have my little dude pick a number and I will video tape it and put it up on my blog so you see it wasnt fixed, lol!

Friday, January 6, 2012

So, I know I have been promising for FOREVER that I was going to do a video about opening my Cameo, and guess what???? I FINALLY did it! I even had my little guy help get the packaging off!!!

Once I opened it, I could not WAIT to play with it! So, as soon as I came home from my first day back to work, I set it up! It looks so nice next to my Cricut Mini! I feel like such a paper crafter, LOL! Here's my not as long video!

I cant wait to make my first project with it! I will probably make one to submit to a few design teams that I wanted to try out for! I did find out today that sadly I did not get picked for the Paper Crafters Library design team, BUT there is always next term! And maybe by then, I will have some more of you awesome followers, as well as a better understanding of adding videos to my blog!

OK guys, time for me to jet! Hope to catch you all Craftin and Stampin!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

So I FINALLY used my Teresa Collins Stampmaker and can I just say that I love it?????? It was a little bit messy (which they really don't tell you) and it was VERY sticky (also something they don't tell you), BUT if you read the instructions (which I did with the exception of 1 step), you will NOT have any problems with it! I attempted to make my own stamp first, and I really wish I would have experimented with one of her templates that she gave, because I messed up my first one pretty good.

Here are the 2 stamps I made:

Here is a quick video I made showing what I liked and didn't like about making my first stamp! (PS...do not mind my nails-or lack there of...I had them done for vacation, and when I came home and was working on some projects, I had to rip them off cause I cant work with fake nails!!! I haven't had the time to use nail polish remover either...lol!)

Tomorrow I will have another video showing you how I made a sentiment stamp, because for the LIFE of me, I could not figure out how to print in the Imagepak software! I wasted about an hour just trying back and forth with different things to make it work, and I couldn't....Tomorrow's video will show you how I did it! On Friday, I will have my video showing off my new Silhouette Cameo!! YEA!!! Its all filmed and READY to go!!! Wonder when I will have the time to actually use it...?

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

So yesterday I made a quick post about going to Hobby Lobby...well, sadly we didnt make it there. Our GPS could not navigate there and it was saying that it was 87 miles away! Hubby was NOT ready to drive that far! I guess I cant say that I would blame him! The good news is that they are opening one in the Millville NJ area and thats only a half hour away! I'll be there every weekend once it opens in February!!! I can only imagine the great deals I will find!!! Stay tuned for the opening weekend there!! I'll do a video!

Speaking of video, I made one last night, and I DIDNT get cut off! Its just another haul video, but I am a step closer to grasping video uploading! I found out that if your video is longer than 15 minutes, it will NOT get uploaded to You Tube! So that is what I am aiming for now...shorter than 15 minutes!!! I will have a few videos to share tomorrow and the next day! But, PS, does anyone know how to work Intelli-Studio for video editing?????

For tomorrow's post, I will show you a few videos! I am in the process AS WE SPEAK of making my first stamps!! Woo Hoo!!! Lets see how this turns out!!!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Just a quick little post....HUBBY IS TAKING ME TO HOBBY LOBBY! Now you all may not think that is a huge thing, but considering I live 58 miles 1 WAY from a Hobby Lobby, that's HUGE!!! I'm so excited!!!! I got my coupon all printed out, and I am ready to go! I'll fill you all in on what I get and my impression of a Hobby Lobby as soon as I am back!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

I'm back from my VERY nice vacation!!! We had a WONDERFUL time! We left on Christmas afternoon to go to Disney World for 1 night. We stayed in the Pop Century resort (Jungle Book Building) and we swam on Christmas night! That was AWESOME! I'm saying this because in New Jersey, the temperature Christmas night was 21 degrees! We would have never been able to swim here! It was also really neat to see how some people decided to make Christmas "their own" there! These are some of the windows from the guests rooms:

Aren't they great??? Well, next morning we left for our 1st cruise ever! We sailed on the Disney Dream! It is the newest boat that has the Aqua Duck on it. The Aqua Duck is the water coaster that goes along the outside of the ship! It was SO MUCH FUN! We road it during the day, and at night! It was a little creepy knowing I was going out over the water 150 feet at night (not so much during the day) and I couldn't see the bottom!!! WAY COOL!!! My little guy loved it!!! Disney TOTALLY caters to their guest! We were not let down at all!!!

So, now that I am done giving some info about my vacation, how about I show you a little project I made for the new year???

My future brother in law Sean's birthday is today and I wanted to make him a birthday card showing off 2 of Stampin' Up's new items that are in the new Occassions Mini!!! The items are live on my Stampin Up site TODAY!!! They are the Totally A- Maze-ing Stamp set and the Maze Game that goes with it!!! Here is what I used to make the Cris Cross Card:

I have the directions for a Cris Cross Card on my blog (I made it in December), so just follow the instructions and the info I supplied above! I started a video of this card, but apparently I am long winded and my battery died, lol! Here is some pics of the card!